DevOps Engineer – Cloud Native AI (Sovereign Cloud)

• Employment Type: Full-Time, preferably Freelance

• Department: Engineering / AI Infrastructure

• Language Requirement: Italian & English

The Opportunity: Join a Rocket Ship

AIVB isn't just a startup; we are a high-velocity scaleup redefining how AI solutions reach the market.

• Hyper-Growth: 300% YoY growth, jumping from zero to £1.4M in our first full year.

• Proven Pedigree: Founded by the pioneers behind Deep Learning Italia, the gold standard for AI education in Italy.

• Global Ambition: Backed by £4.5M in seed funding, we are preparing for a major US-led Series A in Q4 2026 to dominate international markets.

We are building the "Operating System" for AI ventures. We don't just build products; we build companies.

About AIVB

Founded in 2024 by Marco Tognoni and Matteo Testi, AIVB is an AI Venture Builder designed to scale innovation at speed. Our team of 40 is anchored by an elite engineering core, primarily AI PhDs, who transform complex research into vertical‑specific powerhouses.

We operate through a Centralized Powerhouse that develops strategic blueprints for specialized spinoffs in high‑impact sectors such as Fashion, Real Estate, and CyberDefense. We are "International by Design", English is our language, and global scale is our target.

Why this role matters

We are building cutting‑edge AI solutions within the boundaries of the Italian National Cloud Strategy. You won't just be clicking buttons in AWS; you will be architecting compliant, self‑hosted AI platforms on sovereign infrastructure. This is a role for an engineer who understands how to build cloud‑native reliability without relying on public hyperscalers.

Role Summary

As a DevOps Engineer for Sovereign AI, you will design and maintain the infrastructure that powers our AI/ML workloads on Italian National Cloud providers (e.g., SeeWeb, Netalia, Aruba). Your focus will be on self‑managed Kubernetes, strict Data Sovereignty, and implementing open‑source MLOps toolchains that function independently of US‑based public clouds.

Key Responsibilities

1. Sovereign Infrastructure & Orchestration

• Deploy and manage production‑grade Kubernetes clusters on private cloud or national provider infrastructure (using Kubernetes / Rancher).

• Ensure high availability and disaster recovery within the specific zones/regions of the national provider.

2. Self-Hosted MLOps

• Since we cannot use managed services, you will architect and maintain a self‑hosted MLOps stack using tools like MLflow, or Kubeflow.

• Configure and optimize MinIO‑like S3‑compatible object storage (e.g. SeaweedFS, Garage) to handle large training datasets locally.

• Manage container registries (Harbor) located strictly within Italian borders.

3. Compliance & Security (GDPR/AGID)

• Strictly enforce Data Sovereignty principles; ensure no data egresses outside of Italy/EU.

• Implement security standards compliant with AGID (Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale) and ACN (Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale) guidelines.

4. GPU & Hardware Optimization

• Configure NVIDIA vGPU or PCI passthrough on virtualized national cloud instances.

• Optimize the AI stack (CUDA drivers, Container Toolkit) for maximum performance on constrained infrastructure.

• Serverless GPU usage experience

Tech Stack & Skills

The environment is "Cloud Native" but relies heavily on open‑source and self‑hosted equivalents of public cloud services.

Domain & Related Technology:

• Cloud Environment - Italian National Cloud (Seeweb, Netalia)

• Orchestration - Kubernetes, Rancher

• Virtualization - es. Proxmox, OpenStack, KVM, VMware

• Storage - SeaweedFS, Garage, Vast

• AI/ML Platform - Kubeflow, MLflow, JupyterHub

• CI/CD - Github actions, ArgoCD

• Observability - Prometheus, Grafana, Loki (PLG Stack)

Qualifications

Required:

• 2+ years of experience in roles such as: DevOps Engineer, DevSecOps Engineer, Cloud Architect, Infrastructure Engineer, Release Engineer, Platform Engineer, MLOps

• Strong expertise in Kubernetes: you must be able to deploy, manage, and troubleshoot K8s clusters without relying on external support (e.g., cloud providers)

• Hands‑on experience with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Helm)

• Experience in designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines

• Solid experience with Linux System Administration

• Knowledge of messaging/streaming systems (e.g. Redis Streams)

• Basic understanding of cybersecurity principles (secure configurations, secrets management, vulnerability awareness)

• Understanding of Data Sovereignty and GDPR regulations in a technical context

Preferred:

• Experience with event‑driven and autoscaling tools such as KEDA and workload schedulers like Kueue

• Knowledge of GitOps principles and tools (e.g. ArgoCD, Flux)

• Experience migrating workloads from AWS/Azure to Private/National Clouds

• Experience working with Public Sector clients or heavily regulated industries (Finance, Healthcare)

• Italian language fluency (often required for documentation with national providers)

• Knowledge of MIG Technology (Multi‑Instance GPU)

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation tailored to the Italian market.

• Opportunity to work on high-impact projects within the National Strategic framework.

• Training budget for Kubernetes (CKA/CKS/CKAD) certifications.

• Budget 40k - 60k euro

Do you want to be part of our team? Apply now!